Vizhinjam: development and exploitation
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The country, especially the state of Kerala, has vested great hopes in the Vizhinjam International Port, which was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is India's first deep-sea transhipment port. With this becoming the gateway to the country's maritime trade sector, foreign exchange earnings and employment opportunities are expected to be abundant. Vizhinjam will mark itself as an important base on the world maritime trade map. The natural depth is a natural feature of Vizhinjam.This provides convenience for even large cargo ships to sail, berth and leave. The advantage is that the ‘turnover time’, the time it takes for ships to leave the shore after loading and unloading, will be less. The natural depth of the sea also helps in the easy berthing of very large cargo ships. Another factor that saves time in container movement is that the port is ‘semi-automated’. Vizhinjam is also the first port of its kind in the country. Thus, the port, which is a great facility for the world’s largest shipping companies, provides an unprecedented opportunity in the maritime trade sector to its owners and users. It is expected that the movement of goods, which until now has been carried out through the shipping channel next to Vizhinjam, will hence be carried out through Vizhinjam. With India's transhipment trade, which has been dependent on the ports of Colombo, Singapore, and Dubai, being carried out through Vizhinjam, not only will time be saved, but also huge financial gains are also expected.
All the leaders remind us that they play a big role in the commercial and industrial development of the state and the country. Leaders often say that when it comes to development, we should think beyond politics and that there should be no disunity or division on that score. They are supposed to say that too. However, it is regrettable that those who should say that and set an example have themselves become the cause of partisan politics. The Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, among others, have been involved in sowing disunity by talking politics into the shared joy of development. The signs of this were evident from the way the opposition leader was ‘invited’ to the ceremony. If the opposition leader had attended the ceremony, it would not have diminished its value, and as such the government should have ensured his presence. At the same ceremony, the BJP state president, who had no place in the protocol, was also invited, which was another proof of political considerations. But with the fact that he had taken a place on the stage two hours earlier and the BJP and CPM workers gathered and shouted slogans against each other, no one would argue that it brightened the formal inauguration of the international port.
Another deliberate obfuscation was also inexpiable. Acknowledging the role of the present opposition, especially is Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, by recalling what was done by them for the Vizhinjam project, would only have enhanced the prestige of the present Chief Minister and the government. MV Raghavan, who was the Ports Minister in the UDF, is also among the initiators of the project. It was under the leadership of Oommen Chandy that the blueprint for the project was prepared, seeing that private participation was the only way to implement the project. Tenders were called, environmental and safety clearances were obtained, most of the land was acquired, Viability Gap Funding (VGF) was secured, and construction work began. All that time, the present ruling party had been protesting against it. Although the VGF share is given as financial assistance by the Union government, under the Modi regime, even that became a loan. And many have pointed out signs of political bargaining on that, too. The pretence of love for Kerala and the withholding of even the funds that are due to it are not in the larger national interest but for political gain. In reality, the money for the port is being spent by a private company called Adani Vizhinjam Ports Private Limited and, to a lesser extent, by the state government. Amidst the partisan politics, even the Left fails to see the inroads of the private sector into mega projects, including the port. It will take years for the share of profits from the Vizhinjam port to trickle down to the people. It is no use losing sight of the other side of Vizhinjam, that mega projects can be implemented in the ‘left’ economic order only through mechanisms that fetch more money for those who already have it.
